Blowing the tail light fuse

[ThatGuy]

Aloha all
I ended up with the gremlin that blows the tail light fuse in the engine compartment fuse box. Takes out the tail lights, the front side marker lights, and the dashboard lights. The typical solution is that there is a short somewhere in the wiring. I have a 2002 Gen 1.5 SE manual, 3.3 liter engine, 4wd

I yanked on the wiring for both side marker lights up front and banged on the lights too. No response.

Then I pulled the plastic interior piece off the rear hatch and yanked on all the wires inside the hatch. Took of the rear lights wiggled everything all was working even replaced the tail/ brake light bulbs. Also pulled the rubber plugs where the wiring bundle goes thru from inside the truck to the door. Yanked on the cables and nothing. All the cables looked fine. Also wiggled the rear license plate light wires but everything is fine.

So in “short” I can’t make it trip. But if I drive about 5 minutes and the fuse blows. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Ken

 

[reaver]

Out of curiosity, have you done anything with the stereo?

The wire that controls the dash illumination also powers the radio illumination. I had a short right there at the radio in mine (stupid spade connectors). My wife also had a bad ground after I installed her new radio (I even used my multimeter to find what I thought was the ground wire). After replacing the spade connector with a better connector, and running a new ground for the wife's radio, no more blown tail light fuses.

 

[Muadeeb]

I had a bad socket in my plate light that would blow the circuit.

 

[ThatGuy]

Thanks to both of you for the replies. I did have a new stereo and backup camera installed a year ago but haven’t seen any problems. Still I will put that on the list of possible causes. And I took out the plate lights and wiggled them around and they didn’t short it but neither did anything else.
So I put in a new fuse and repainted the shovel I have on my roof rack. Has worked fine for a couple of days since then . LOL. Only problem now is I can’t take it to my mechanic now since it’s working again. I remain highly suspicious of the front marker lights though. Maybe they just dried out. We had some very wet weather for a while. Never saw condensation in them though.

Many thanks to both of you for your replies

 

[Muadeeb]

The illumination circuit runs everywhere, and only has the one fuse. Simple, but a nightmare to troubleshoot

 

[ThatGuy]

 

[Brunnie]

So I put in a new fuse and repainted the shovel I have on my roof rack. Has worked fine for a couple of days since then . LOL.

AH HA!!!! It was the shovel all along. Good reason to not carry one.

 

[BEEFY]

I have the same issue. Its very intermittent. Can blow 3 fuses in week then go over 6 months without. Gave up looking and just carry spares.

I know, no help at all

 

[Brunnie]

I have the same issue. Its very intermittent. Can blow 3 fuses in week then go over 6 months without. Gave up looking and just carry spares.

I know, no help at all

Paint your shovel!! (see above)

 

[ThatGuy]

Paint your shovel!! (see above)

Fuse is still going strong. Have not replaced the shovel even though the paint is fully dry!!! Hanging in the garage on my wife’s side. Gotta keep it at a distance from the X.

(P.S. I bought the 250 piece fuse kit for 8.99 on Amazon, so definitely following Beefy’s strategy too!)